Norwich Mothers Union are Christmas angels

The Mothers Union in the Norwich Diocese have been working hard this month to buy, wrap and send Christmas gifts to the children of 45 prisoners in East Anglian prisons as part of The Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree programme.

This year 78 gifts have been bought and sent by the Mothers Union in the Diocese of Norwich to the children of 45 prisoners in two East Anglia prisons.

The initiative is part of The Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree programme which buys and delivers Christmas presents to children in the UK whose parents are in prison. The imprisoned parent is able to handwrite a gift tag which is then attached to the present. The children then know that even if their parent hasn’t been able to purchase the present, he or she had a part in choosing it.

The Prison Fellowship do not currently run the project within the Norwich area so the Mothers’ Union members in the Norwich Diocese undertake this project as part of their purpose to support family life. The gifts went to children who had a parent in either the Blundeston or Peterborough prison.

Eunice Norwood of the Mothers Union in the Norwich Diocese said: “We support the children. No matter what the offence of the parent, the children are innocent. They are left at home to miss their parent, to cope with the sadness and anger of their families, sometimes to be taken into care, and to have to find some explanation for the parent’s absence to offer their school friends.

“Government statistics show very clearly that if prisoners are able to return home on release they have a vastly improved chance of making a success of their future. To be welcomed home, a prisoner needs to have kept in touch with the family. The Angel Tree Project facilitates this.”

One grateful parent who was part of the programme on a previous year responded to the initiative by writing: “I am sending you this card to say a big thank you for sending my four children a Christmas present on my behalf. They all loved their presents and it made their Christmas. Thank you.”